Friday, 25 July 2014

On my travels again. This is one of the projects I took with me. Can anybody guess what it is? Maybe someone recognises the pattern. The picots on the edge are facing front and then back to make more of a frilly edge.

I'm on holiday, so no shuttle-making for a while but of course, still time to tat!

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Phew! We're having a bit of a heatwave here in the UK… is it too hot to crochet? Too hot to tat?

Of course not! Though I must say I tend to limit those activities to evening when the temperature has cooled a bit.

Here is the progress made on the new crochet blanket. I'm making it even longer than the Granny Square one.

This is a project that really doesn't require much attention so is perfect for when watching a movie. It's made of two-round strips that are joined together at the third round. I have just five colours for this one and I was going for a random mix of the four colours surrounded by the darker blue. Actually I'm now sorry I didn't use the same arrangement for each strip instead of the mix I have here. Ah, live and learn!

I've hardly spent anything on this yarn though so I don't mind that it's not quite right. It will be just one more cosy blanket to wrap around ourselves when autumn comes...

Monday, 14 July 2014

I had not made my little leaf since coming up with the One-Stitch-Self-Closing-Mock-Ring (1SSCMR). The 1SSCMR is great for making a pointy chain (as seen in my Snow Crystals pattern) - I now also use this technique for making my little pea pod. So I decided to tat my leaf again and use the 1SSCMR for the point instead of the small R4 I had before.

I couldn't help myself and started playing with the stitch count as well while I was at it and seeing if I could improve the centre bit of it.

It's still a work in progress. Can't decide if I prefer two small rings at the top on the inside or one single ring.

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Just a quick post. I needed something to clip my hair back when I play squash. Found an old hair clip in the girls' hair stuff box that had lost its decoration. Had a short sample strip of Mille-Fleurs on hand…

Friday, 4 July 2014

I had a lovely gift from Tatting Jeanie (the lady who makes the Magic Loops) - it's a bag to put all my tatting stuff in. There are loads of pockets, and flaps and elastics to slip things in. I like the fabric and look at that beautiful strip of roll tatting!

Roll tatting is a technique I need to work more on.

Last time I tried it, I was finding it difficult to

keep it all smooth and uniform.

It was quite hard to show all the pockets in one photo!

I will be putting it to good use when I'm travelling this summer.

Thank you Jeanie!

And to keep with that colour scheme, I was lacking some red for my wardrobe and made another crochet top in rich, bright red. Perfect match to a pair of shoes I have.

This is another design by Doris Chan.

In her book, she uses these button closures which

I thought were very clever!

You just attach two shank buttons together

(here with beads on the thread)

and then you can slip the buttons in any hole

of your crochet top.

So you can change the look

and button at the top or middle,

or wherever you like.

Such a great idea.

And lastly, I started another "big" project. I found some very inexpensive yarn and found myself inspired to tackle another blanket!

I will be travelling this weekend though and will be taking my Jan Stawasz project with me so hopefully a bit of progress will be made there too.